


Asagi's New Brother

by leshoa



Category: Basara (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 16:32:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leshoa/pseuds/leshoa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How Sarasa, Ageha and Asagi became a family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Asagi's New Brother

**Author's Note:**

  * For [slr2moons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/slr2moons/gifts).



> Italicized sentences come directly from the manga. Unbetaed - any constructive criticisms or feedback in general appreciated.
> 
> Happy Holidays slr2moons!

It wasn’t fair.  It was always ‘Tatara, Tatara’.  What about her?  What about Sarasa?  She ran out to the desert, sobbing at the unfairness.  It was her birthday, too.  But no one ever remembers that. 

Then she look around at the desert.  The desert was her home, but she had never ventured so far at night before.  She could see a river of light a short distance away, warming up the desert sand.  Is it a caravan?  They should be able to direct her back home – it’s the only village nearby.

She started towards them, when something careened towards her face.  She stumbled backwards, hands automatically going up to defend herself.

“Kagerou!”

She turned to see a man in blue holding up her his hand.  The shadow hurtling towards her veered away sharply and landed lightly on the man’s forearm.

The man looked at her and she was abruptly aware of her red eyes, and disheveled braids.

_“You are the rumored child of destiny?”_

Sarasa flushed, all her anger coming back.  “No, that’s my brother.  I’m Sarasa.”  She turned away, then heard shouts from the caravan.

“Stay here.”

The man rushed towards the noise.

She stayed still for a moment, before hurrying after him, but quickly fell behind.  When she finally scrambled over the last sand dune, she just caught sight of a blade slicing across Ageha before Kagerou flew towards her again and pushed her behind the dune. 

A cold voice said, _“I forgive them in place of your eye.  Your name?”_

_“Ageha”_

As soon as the caravan was gone, Kagerou flew off her.  She ran over the dune and saw Ageha with blood flowing over the left side of his face.

“Your wound!  Umm…please come with me.  Nagi is a great a healer and will heal you for certain.”

 _“I can lick my own wounds.”_   He paused.  “But first – boy, who are you and what were you doing playing with the Red King?”

For the first time, Sarasa noticed a youth standing a few paces from Ageha.  He was extraordinarily beautiful – a match for Ageha.  A blue sapphire sat on his forehead under his blonde hair.

He had been looking at Ageha with a perplexed frown, but smiled brightly when he saw them looking at him.  “Shouldn’t you have asked that before you sacrificed your eye for me?”

Ageha stared at the youth for a long moment before turning back to Sarasa. 

“Tell your brother that anticipation of his arrival is gathering across the country.”

“Her brother.  Who is her brother?  Who is your brother, girl.”

Sarasa bristled.  “I’m Sarasa.  And my brother is Tatara.”

“I’ve come to ally myself with him.  Take me to him, girl.”

Tatara again!  And he couldn’t even remember her name.  “I’ve already said my name is Sarasa.  And…” she looked down, “I’ve never been this far from the village and I wasn’t really looking before.  Nagi’s started to teach me about navigating the stars, but I’m not very good yet.”

The youth snapped, “Well, do you remember which direction you ran from at least?”

“I ran out the west side of the village.” The boy was so rude! And he hadn't even thanked Ageha even though Ageha had saved him.

Though Ageha didn't seem to mind when he said, “The Red King was heading east.  Let’s go, eastwards is that way.  We’ll avoid the roads so that we do not run into the Red King again.”

~

She smelled the smoke before she saw the flames.  Ageha grabbed her before she could run into the ruins of the village.

“Let me go.  I need to find my brother.  And my parents.  Wait, that’s my father."

She ran over to her father and shook him, but it was obvious that he was dead with the gash through his head and body. Bodies were everywhere, and the food they had prepared for the feast were scattered all around. All the houses and buildings were on fire.

"Sarasa."  She turned around, looking for the origin of the voice.

"He's over here."  Ageha gestured to a man collapsed to the side wearing white soaked with blood.

"Nagi.  Are you alright?”

“Hush Sarasa.  You need to listen.  The prophecy about the child of destiny.  It was never said that the child is a boy.”

“It doesn’t matter.  I need to get the medicine.”

“There’s no time.  Sarasa, when you and your brother were born, I told the village that you were the children of destiny.  They interpreted that as your brother being the son of destiny.  But both of you were born under the same moon.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You will.  Hide for now.  The other villages are our allies, but you should not go to them while the Red King is searching for rebels.”  Nagi turned towards Ageha, who had knelt on his other side.  “Please, protect Sarasa until she can do so herself.  There is an evil presence that surrounds her even now.  She needs your aid.”

His heart stilled even as Ageha gave his assent.

“Nagi?  Nagi!”

“Come Sarasa, we must leave.  We don’t know if the Red King and his troops will come back.”

“But, I need to find my brother and everyone else."

"Well, there's no one alive left here."  Ageha looked at the youth, who shrugged in response.  "It looks like all the villagers were here.  And everything else is burning."

There was no disputing that.  The Red King had been thorough.

The youth approached Sarasa and gently placed his hand on her shoulder.  "Sarasa."  He had to wait a long moment before she turned away from Nagi and looked at him, but didn't show any impatience.  "Do you see your brother's body here?  What does he look like?"

Her eyes widened and she quickly got up.  "He looks like me.  We're twins."  They went around looking at the bodies, before she gasped.  "I...I think that's his body.  Those are his clothes."  Her uncertainty was due to the torso missing its head.  

Ageha frowned at Tatara's body before saying curtly, "We have to leave."  

The youth gasped, "She just lost her brother and her father.  Can't you give her some time?  We should at least bury the bodies."

" The Red King may come back at any time.  You should leave too.  I doubt the Red King would be merciful a second time if you too meet up again.”

The youth didn't respond for a moment.  Then he ran to one of the burning structures, and was back even as Ageha was about to save him a second time that night.  He carried a stick with its end on fire.  "Sarasa, we don't have time to properly bury your father or brother.  But we should at least give them back to the fire, so they can't be desecrated by the Red King."

He passed her the makeshift torch.  Together, they helped Sarasa set the bodies alight.

"Why don’t we leave together?  My home is in Kanto, which is far from the Red King's territory."

Ageha looked like he was about to refuse, when the youth added, “You don't need to decide now.  But east is away from the capital."  He smiled and lightly touched Sarasa's head.  "Plus, a second person may help with looking after Sarasa.”

Ageha nodded.  Then smiled sharply, "Are you going to tell me your name while we travel together?  Or should I just call you boy?"

"It's Asagi."

~

Two days later, Asagi was resting on the bed in the inn that they had finally found after two days of trekking away from Byakko village.  Ageha had gone out to procure supplies and Sarasa was in the next room sleeping.  They had not slept for two days as they had tried to put as much distance as they could between themselves and the Red King.

He turned as four shadows coalesced.

“Lord Asagi, what will you have of us?”

“Ran, stay with me.  But make sure that Sarasa and Ageha do not see you.  Ume, go west and keep an eye on my younger brother.  The rest of you, go back to Kanto and monitor the ‘Blue King’.  We wouldn’t want him to accidentally burn down the city.”

The three disappeared until the only kunshi left was Ran.

“Lord Asagi, do you mind if I ask about your intentions with the girl and the nomad?”

“Well, Ageha did sacrifice his eye for me.  The least I could do is to stay while he heals.  It’s such a pity – marring that beauty.  Just another sign that my younger brother needs some more educating before he can be allowed in civilized company.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Also, go back and see if the sword called Byakko can be found.”

The kunshi disappeared.  Asagi went to the room where Sarasa was sleeping.  She was whimpering.  Ageha was in a separate room, but had left the owl here, which had opened its eyes when Asagi entered the room.  Asagi ignored it.  He stroked her cheek. then sat down next to her. 

“You’ve just lost a big brother.  Perhaps I can take the place of your big brother for a little while.  I think I need the practice for when I meet my little brother.”

He laid his head down and thought sleepily, 'And everyone knows that little brother and sisters always fight with each other.  Though if she really looks just like Tatara, perhaps I can adopt a little brother instead.  That would be better practice anyway.  And big brothers are supposed to guide younger siblings on important things like family honour and vengeance."  He fell asleep beside Sarasa with a smile on his face.


End file.
